Tag Archives: Homes for sale in Silicon Valley

The Mountain View City Council voted to increase fees on new rental, office, high-tech, and industrial development, but made no change to fees on new ownership housing. In making its decision, the council discussed the serious lack of available ownership housing in Mountain View and the need to keep ownership an attractive option for developers. The City dedicates these fees to funding Mountain View’s affordable housing programs. Continue reading →

Fleets of Corporate Buses that dot clogged highways have become the concrete symbol of the dramatic expansion in the Bay Area sending rents and homes prices skyrocketing. The gentrification of neighborhoods have dramatically changed Silicon Valley real estate and rents are up as much as 43 percent within a few blocks of company transit to stops in San Francisco, according to one measure.

Mountain View Google’s Fleet of Commute Buses

As Silicon Valley once spanned the short stretch from Palo Alto to San Jose, the boundaries have expanded marketing prime real estate as – “Walk to your private bus stop.”

“Transportation is the new status symbol” – the hulking luxury buses complete with Wi-Fi and electricity outlets “signal that you have a job and that you have one with a firm that is forward-thinking and enlightened.” “You live where you want to live, we’ll get you to work,” stated Kevin Mathy, Google’s transportation manager, describing the Internet search giant philosophy. That simple goal has become an economic force.

CLICK HERE for an excellent article by Michelle Quinn, San Jose Mercury News.

The Bay Area’s housing market stumbled in May — prime home-buying season — as high prices and low inventory held real estate sales well below normal levels, according to a report Thursday.

Sales of single-family houses were down from the same month last year in the East Bay, Peninsula and South Bay, while prices were up, according to real estate information service DataQuick, which released the report. Prices for all types of homes were at their highest since November 2007 in the nine-county Bay Area.

Welcome to our Friday update. The Jobs report for February is out and it beat expectations coming in at 175,000 jobs created above expectations of 150,000. Additionally there were upward revisions from the past two months reports of 25,000 additional jobs created.

Holly Guacamole! We unexpected got a lousy jobs report this morning and Mortgage Bonds are the beneficiary! The Bureau of Labor Statics reported the economy created 74,000 jobs missing huge on the forecasts that predicted a range of 200k to 250k jobs! For comparison the number for October was 200k created and November was 241k created so this was really out of left field! The Jobs Report each month is always the biggest market mover and again its tied to Fed stimulus right now so reactions to the news are exacerbated for Mortgage Bonds. You can see the large green box on the right of the chart below showing the bond market rally today but you can also see we are a long ways off from where rates were in Mid-November. We will enjoy the improvement for now and continue to watch it as we still have some room to run before hitting resistance. Hopefully we can hold onto these gains today as its typically a volatile day after the jobs report like this!

We’ve got some housing numbers to share with you this week and all of it points to a strong and stable housing market. The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index was reported this week showing values increased nationally by 0.3% in September. The Year over Year is up 8.5% which is a good number for national appreciation of home prices. The Case Shiller Home Price Index for September which tracks closing prices in 20 major cities in the US reported values were up 0.7%. Home Prices are up 13.3% according to them year over year. This is the best number in 7.5 years! Robert Shiller was interviewed on CNBC and although the numbers look good they did not scare him in terms of a potential housing bubble. He explained that those surveyed were not too optimistic which alleviates any bubble concerns he may have had. He noted the rate of appreciation is slowing but this is probably a good thing as 13% appreciation is not sustainable, but there is nothing wrong with 6% appreciation which may be where housing is headed nationally.

Pickpocketing, one of the world’s oldest and most common crimes, involves stealing money so cleverly that the victim doesn’t notice he’s been robbed until the pickpocket is long gone. This particular crime appeals to many thieves because it’s safer than many other criminal pursuits. It has been said that someone skilled in the art of pickpocketing can steal as much money as an armed robber with much less risk of getting caught. Pickpockets depend on speed, sleight of hand, and clever tricks designed to distract a victim, directing attention away from the crime in progress. Continue reading →